


Sobriety Is(n't) Super Overrated

by moretrash



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Fluff, He and Five are getting there together, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Sober Klaus Hargreeves, Well he's getting there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-03-08 09:15:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18891622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moretrash/pseuds/moretrash
Summary: Klaus and Five both have their issues.But they're getting better.





	Sobriety Is(n't) Super Overrated

**Author's Note:**

> I did some research on drug/alcohol withdrawals, but it still may not be entirely accurate. Please don't hesitate to let me know if anything is inaccurate in any way!

Delores had, on multiple occasions, called Five an alcoholic.

Five had always just ignored her, brushing off what she had said. They were in the middle of an apocalypse, after all, and Five thought he was perhaps allowed to drink a bottle of fine wine.

Or two.

Okay, maybe three or four if such a treasure was located.

-

It didn't change much when he had returned home.

Maybe the first indicator to his siblings was watching their physically thirteen year old brother drink an entire bottle of Reginald's finest whiskey like it was a glass of ice water.

Again, Delores called him an alcoholic.

Again, Five ignored her.

Reginald's alcohol cabinet was extensive, full of fine wines and liquors that Five had only dreamed of during the apocalypse. So, no, it didn't take him too terribly long to help himself.

Diego and Luther had found him passed out drunk at a library. They had just passed it off as stress over the prosthetic eye; not exactly behavior that they wanted to encourage, but not something they were going to make a huge deal out of.

Except finding him passed out drunk became a common occurrence after they had averted the apocalypse. So much so, in fact, that the police department knew him by name due to the amount of times an officer had brought him in to keep him safe, not wanting him out on the streets when he was so drunk.

So much so, in fact, that said police department knew exactly which numbers to call the moment they saw him enter, stumbling over himself and struggling to stay upright even with the help of a well-meaning police officer.

"Five, this is the third time this week I've had to come get your drunk ass from the cops. What's going on?" Diego asked. He knew there had to be something deeper than just wanting to drink.

Five just groaned, too drunk to truly register anything other than how awful he felt.

"Fucking hell, man, really? You know you'll just wake up with a hangover after you inevitably throw up and pass out, right?" Diego said. Five didn't seem to fully register that, just nodding.

Diego sighed quietly. Yes, he was pissed at and worried about his brother, but he wasn't an awful human being. He set a bucket by Five's bed, helping the boy strip out of his blazer and tie, unbuttoning the first couple of buttons on his shirt and removing his loafers and socks before getting the boy into bed. He set a bottle of ibuprofen and a bottle of water by the bed for whenever Five awoke, as well, closing the door as he left the room.

-

"Dude, you look like shit. And that's coming from me." Klaus said the next morning, setting a cup of coffee in front of Five. The coffee wasn't the best Five had ever had, but he could tell Klaus had worked hard on it. Perhaps it had been a distraction; the man had been trying so hard to get sober, distracting himself by any means possible.

"My head is pounding." Five groaned quietly.

"Yeah, that's what you get for getting blackout drunk again." Diego said easily, leaving the room to go do who-knows-what.

"Five, again? That's like, the eighth time in two weeks, bud." Klaus said, his voice full of concern. "Come on, talk to your big brother Klausy, what's goin' on in that head of yours that's making you want to go out and get drunk every night."

"Bold of you to talk like that given you're the one that's spent the last eighteen years doing drugs." Five countered.

"Yes, but I'm getting better. You, for all intents and purposes, just seem to be getting worse." Klaus said easily. "Beside, like you said! I would know the most about having to get rid of whatever's going on inside that head of yours."

"I am not getting worse, thank you very much." Five said, sitting up.

"On the contrary, having the cops calling us at 3 AM because you were picked up drunk off your ass has been happening more and more often." Klaus corrected. "You can talk to me, Five. I'm not gonna sit here and let you destroy yourself like this. It's not healthy for anyone, much less a thirteen year old body."

"I don't need your help." Five said venomously, moving to get up. Klaus grabbed his wrist, and Five knew he was done for. He couldn't jump away now, it would only make him sick.

"Please, Five. Talk to me. I promise, nothing will leave the two of us if you don't want it to unless it directly endangers your health or safety." Klaus said. And Five was nothing if not weak for the pleading voice his siblings gave him. He had missed them for so long that all he wanted to do was make them happy now.

"I just… I don't know." Five said.

"Let's start with something more specific, then. Do you know why you drink?" Klaus asked.

"Makes everything better." Five said vaguely.

"Better how?" Klaus asked gently.

"Makes me forget everything. Made me forget I was in an apocalypse and makes the nightmares go away." Five answered quietly. Klaus' heart shattered into pieces for his brother, wrapping him in a tight hug. He guided his brother's head to rest on his shoulder, sighing sadly.

"Oh, Five… there are better ways to deal with this, you know that, right?" He said. "You know what? How about we be each other's support for this? I get sober, you get sober, we come to each other for distractions. Does that sound like a good plan?"

Five nods. Because yeah, that does sound like a really, really good plan.

-

It takes a while for Five to actually reach out for a distraction instead of sneaking into a bar. After all, it was usually between midnight and 2AM that he needed a distraction the most, and he really couldn't bring himself to wake Klaus at such an hour when the man was already having sleeping issues.

Whenever he needed a drink during the day, he could occupy himself with something easy enough with his siblings or only have a small glass of alcohol, but now that they were asleep, it was pretty much impossible to resist.

Klaus awoke to rapid, tiny knocks on his bedroom door. He rolled out of bed and stretched his arms over his head before padding over to the door and pulling it open.

"Yeah? What's up?" Klaus asked groggily when he saw Five standing behind the door.

"I need a distraction." Five said evenly, as though he had rehearsed what he was going to say in his head.

"Okay, I can do that. How about I teach you how to knit, yeah?" Klaus said, stepping aside to let Five into the room.

"Anything's fine." Five said easily. It was hard for him to admit that he needed help, but he found that he really did want to stop relying on alcohol for everything.

"Alright. First let me find you some knitting needles. Do you want yellow or blue yarn?" He asked, holding up the two bundles of yarn.

"Yellow." Five answered after a moment. Klaus nodded and handed him a spare pair of knitting needles before taking out his own current project, which appeared to be a scarf done in red yarn.

"Alright, so first you have to cast on your yarn." Klaus started, demonstrating the process to his brother. Five stared in confusion for a few moments before performing a mediocre at best rendition of the process. "Good, good! Now you need to start stitching…"

Five didn't have anything to drink that night.

-

Going cold turkey was a bad idea. Klaus could've told Five that, as he had had experience with going cold turkey on drugs.

The decision came after he had nearly gotten run over a few days after the knitting experience when he went out at night to sneak into bars and get himself drunk off his ass. It was some realization that something really, really bad could happen to him if he kept up the way he was.

It wasn't an incorrect observation, but Klaus had advised him to start by cutting back. But Five was nothing if not stubborn, and decided to quit cold turkey.

The withdrawals had been awful, to say the least. They had arrived the day after his decision.

Klaus knew what withdrawals were like. He didn't know if alcohol withdrawal was anything like drug withdrawal, but he could understand what Five was going through. He had googled symptoms and treatments of alcohol withdrawals and came to the conclusion that some of the symptoms were similar, but not all.

He took Five up to his bedroom, helping him into bed. It would be better for him, Klaus knew, if he was comfortable because he was going to be in for one hell of a ride either way. He had turned on the lamp at the far corner of the room from Five's bed so that room was bathed in a soft light rather than the harsh lighting of the overhead light or sunlight.

"Shh, Five, I know you have a headache. Just lay down." Klaus said quietly, draping the blanket over his brother. He left the room and returned with a bucket just in case Five felt nauseous, a bottle of ibuprofen, and a bottle of water. "Call me if you need anything, okay?" He said. He didn't know if what he was doing was the right thing, but he hoped it was. He just didn't want his brother to suffer more than he had to.

-

"Where's Five? He's usually the first one of us awake." Vanya asked at breakfast. The coffee pot was empty and unused that day, and Five's spot at the table was empty.

"He's gonna be in bed today. Poor kid's going through alcohol withdrawal." Klaus answered. He had already been through the worst of the withdrawals, and he wouldn't wish it upon his worst enemy, and he felt helpless knowing he couldn't do anything but help Five through it.

"Oh. Is there anything we can do to help him?" Luther asked.

"I don't know, honestly. Everywhere I looked just said he should stay in a dimly lit room and it would be better to have a supportive atmosphere." Klaus answered.

"Well, we certainly are supportive." Allison said. "Make sure he knows that, yeah?"

-

When Klaus returned to check on Five after breakfast, he was in no better shape.

"What's up, bud? Can you tell me what's wrong so I can help you?" Klaus asked, crouching to be eye level with the boy.

"Headache, nauseous, shaky." Five mumbled. Klaus nodded and got up.

"Okay. Well, there's a bucket here if you gotta puke. I have ibuprofen on the table for your headache, and I don't know what I can do about the shaking." Klaus said. Five nodded and groaned quietly, curling up.

"This fucking sucks." He mumbled quietly.

"Yeah, you're preaching to the choir on that one, bud. But you're not alone in this, because we're gonna help you." Klaus said quietly. "For now, try to get some sleep if you can, and I'll come bring you your knitting project in a few hours if you're feeling up to it."

"Okay." Five said quietly.

"Good. Now, you call me if you need anything, okay?" Klaus said, leaving the room.

And that's how Five rode out the worst of his withdrawals. In bed, with Klaus checking in on him often. His brother always dutifully cleaned the puke bucket whenever he used it, and always delivered light food at mealtimes. Sometimes Five ate it, sometimes he didn't, but Klaus always made sure Five knew that it was okay. He would sit and keep Five company if Five was awake, introducing him to movies and TV shows that Five had missed out on in the apocalypse.

-

Klaus had been sober for three weeks now. Quite a feat, considering he'd been consistently high pretty much since he was 13. He was proud of himself, too. It was nice to know he had the willpower to do such a thing.

But that didn't mean staying sober wasn't a struggle. There were times when Klaus got strong urges to go find some sort of drug, anything would do. Lord knows he always did whatever he could get his hands on. 

So, Klaus had taken up knitting as a distraction. He did it quite a bit, because it distracted him from the ghosts around him as well. So far, he had knitted a scarf, and was working on another one. They were amateur in quality, but Klaus didn't care.

"I need a distraction." Klaus said one night after finding Five sitting on the couch, watching what Klaus thought was some disney movie. Knitting wasn't doing anything to quell his urge that night, and it was clear he would need someone to keep him from getting high.

"You can watch this movie with me." Five said easily. "I made popcorn." He added, holding up the large bowl of popcorn in his lap.

"You made enough popcorn to feed a small village, actually." Klaus said with a chuckle as he sat down on the couch. He tugged part of the blanket Five was under onto his lap, earning a gasp of betrayal from his brother.

"Get your own blanket!" Five said, struggling to hide a laugh. Klaus just grinned and stole the entire blanket in response. "No fair!" Five protested playfully, tugging at the edge of the blanket until Klaus evenly distributed it between them.

"There. Happy now?" Klaus asked teasingly.

"Very." Five answered, passing the bowl of popcorn over to Klaus.

-

Delores had once called Five an alcoholic.

Now, he could admit to himself that maybe he was, but he was trying to get better.

And he knows it won't be easy, not by a long shot. But he had someone he could talk to, someone who could, in a way, understand his struggle far more than any of his other siblings because he was going through a similar thing. He learns to celebrate his little victories and he learns the importance of self-care from his siblings. And maybe self care for him meant stealing Allison's sweet-smelling bath salts to relax in a warm bath at the end of a long day, and listening to Vanya play the violin when he couldn't sleep.

And Klaus can't say he's had an easy time getting sober, and he's not entirely there yet. He hopes for a day when he no longer craves the drugs, but for now he's happy that he's almost a month sober. He celebrates the little victories in his journey by treating himself the way he's always wanted to. He learns to tune out the screaming of the ghosts around him, and holds late night conversations with Ben. And Ben is proud of him, because he's watched Klaus destroy himself for so long, and it was nice to watch his brother get better because he wanted to, not because he was being involuntarily forced through withdrawals or anything if the sort.

When Klaus can make him solid, he hugs his brother as tight as possible and makes sure to tell him how proud he is of him, because he is. He really, truly is.

And Klaus and Five both know that they can go to the other at any hour if they need a distraction, no questions asked. Because they understood that it was hard to resist their separate urges. 

One time, when Klaus had said he needed a distraction, Five had had Klaus stand still while Five scribbled equations onto the wall from his perch on his shoulders, having stopped being able to reach any blank space on his wall. Klaus had found it rather amusing to tickle Five's sock-clad feet, which made Five break into hysterical giggles until he gave up on writing his equations.

One time, which Five had said he needed a distraction, Klaus had taken him shopping for normal clothes rather than his academy uniforms. They had arrived home with clothes that Five was comfortable with, dark-wash jeans and various colors of slacks, button-up and ties and the odd bow-tie and polo shirts of various colors. 

They knew they always had someone who would celebrate their little victories with them even if no one else seemed to understand that although they seemed small, they were big steps in their journey.

Above all else, Klaus and Five are getting better.

And above all else, they're learning that they have people in their corner, even if it doesn't always seem that way.


End file.
